The U.S. Department of Energy said on July 29, 2026, that Brookfield will develop and operate a privately funded artificial intelligence and high-performance computing campus at DOE's Paducah Site, with NextEra Energy building dedicated power for the project.
DOE described the package as a more than $100 billion privately funded investment and one of the largest in Kentucky's history. It projects about 8,000 construction jobs and 600 permanent jobs. Those dollar and employment figures are DOE and partner announcements, not an independent audit of committed capital or hiring.
Under the plan, NextEra would develop 2 gigawatts of new grid-connected natural gas-fired generation, upgrade transmission, and deploy up to 2.6 GW of battery storage to support a planned 1.8 GW AI and HPC campus. DOE says generation and storage capacity would exceed the campus's own needs so surplus power can reach the regional grid. A later DOE Environmental Management note says the lease covers about 785 acres, with construction expected to finish in 2031.
The selection follows a November 2025 Request for Offers at Paducah and sits in the same DOE-lands pipeline that began with an April 2025 request for information on AI infrastructure across 16 candidate sites. In July 2025, DOE had narrowed first-wave solicitations to Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Reservation, Paducah, and Savannah River Site.
Big Rivers Electric Power Corporation is slated for wholesale service, Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative for retail service, and Paducah Power System as a community partner. DOE says the power service agreement still needs Kentucky Public Service Commission approval. Independent trade coverage also notes that definitive lease and development agreements were not yet fully executed at announcement.
Trade desks corroborated the partner split, gas-and-storage build, and job claims while flagging open questions on firm capacity versus nameplate megawatts and the absence of named compute tenants. What remains open is whether PSC approval and final contracts hold the announced timetable, how much firm power the campus can sustain under grid stress, and how Paducah's gas-heavy bridge compares with nuclear-leaning plans at other DOE AI sites.